According to the organisation, Mental Health UK, ‘Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. It can occur when you experience long-term stress in your job, or when you have worked in a physically or emotionally draining role for a long time.’
Symptoms of Burnout?
Common symptoms of burnout include:
- Feeling tired as soon as you wake up
- Feeling drained of energy all the time
- Feeling lost or helpless
- Feeling alone or detached from people or goals
- Pessimistic outlooks
- Self-doubt
- Procrastinating and avoidance
- Overwhelmed by basic tasks
Take a moment to journal, how many of these feel familiar to you?
Why are we seeing more Burnout?
According to the world health organisation (WHO), the likely increase in cases of burnout is related to the years we experienced Covid (2020-2022). Priorities change, and the lines between work and life blurred as much of our work moved into our homes. The world continues to get more stressful, moving at greater speed, and giving us autonomy, resulting in burnout.
So, what’s next? What can we do? Early research into burnout looks at the different forms of rest needed to recover from burnout. Burnout recovery can take months to years, so where do we get started?
7 Forms of Rest
We think of rest as lying down, napping, taking a bath and so on, but did you know there are 7 forms of rest? If you’re not accessing all 7 you may not be completely rested.
Physical Rest
This seems the most obvious, this is what we think of when we say ‘rest’. This includes activities such as sitting, lying, napping, and creating a good sleep environment. However, this also includes restful physical movements such as stretching, tai chi, massage and yoga.
Mental Rest
The name is in the title, but this means taking time to switch off (or aim to switch off) your brain. The aim is to stop thoughts racing thoughts. This could include activities such as sitting/lying without interruptions, scheduling breaks from work & journalling a busy mind.
Spiritual Rest
Spiritual rest looks at an individual's need for belonging, finding a sense of community and purpose. Some people access this through religions, others access this through meditation, breath work or journaling.
Emotional Rest
The aim of this is calm. People who need this are either overly and irrationally emotional about life, or entirely numb to it. Practising this kind of rest means putting yourself first, and setting realistic boundaries. In addition to gaining some professional support on how to manage or work through trapped emotions.
Sensory Rest
The world is too much. Pings, blings and notifications everywhere we look! Maybe we are used to it, but this constant stream of emotional stimuli can lead us to feel worn out, overstimulated and overwhelmed. Time to shut this out. Sensory rest means taking us back to basics, turning off background noise, lights, and technology, taking a social media break and putting the world on pause.
Social Rest
Socialising can be both a blessing and a curse. Too little and we feel isolated, too much and we feel overstimulated. Social rest means taking note of those interactions that leave you feeling fulfilled, and those that leave you feeling drained. Take a break from those unnecessary interactions.
Creative Rest
Last but not least, enjoy creativity in whatever form you love. Prioritise an expression of you! Whether that’s shopping, doing your makeup, cooking, baking, sewing, crocheting, art, gardening and more. Get lost in a creative activity.
Nutrition for Burnout
You are what you eat and some elements of nutrition have been shown to have positive correlations with a reduction in the symptoms of burnout.
Stimulants such as caffeine, taurine, or sugar can increase the negative impact of burnout symptoms. Many of these symptoms stem from anxiety, or chronically experiencing fight or flight. Stimulant foods can worsen the high highs and low lows of this. Aim to avoid caffeine after 12 pm, try to reduce both caffeine and sugar in the diet. Avoid sugar in the hours leading up to bedtime.
B-vitamins have been shown to improve psychological function, and hormonal control and regulate a healthy nervous system. Paired with adaptogens such as cordyceps sinensis & yerba mate, these vitamins can have powerful effects. Adaptogens are natural, herbal and botanical extracts that have been shown to overcome stressors in the body and help to regulate physical manifestations of stress.
Get up and Go from We are Nutrified has been formulated by Nutritionists to partner with lifestyle work in order to reduce symptoms of Burnout. It seems these days we never have enough time or energy to do all the things we want to do. And while we can’t help you with the time side of things, we can definitely give you more energy, with this ingenious blend of vitamins, iron and some of Mother Nature’s more potent secret weapons, designed to work in harmony to reduce feelings of fatigue and tiredness.
References
Share:
Give Me More, More, More- 3 Nutrients all of us need more of!
10 Natural Body-Loving Ingredients